Paul MacDougall: Ladies with Heart

SUBMITTED PHOTO - These are women curlers from Sydney from around 1940. Note the old style house brooms. (Courtesy of Beaton Institute, Abbass Studios, N series, Item 58.1)

It's official. The Scotties Tournament of Hearts is coming to Sydney in February, 2019.

It’s a curler's dream come true. Let's look back to 1977.

I was in high school and used to curl a few afternoons a week at the Sydney Curling Club. Games were from 4 to 6 p.m. The only way to get an after game glass of pop was from the bar and you had to ask an arriving adult curler to get it for you. I'm pretty sure Jean Skinner may have got me a couple.

Skinner's foursome was a formidable force then. They'd show up early and practice a few throws before a game. They had slick jackets and matching pants. They'd slide out of the hack balanced on their brooms and hit the tee line corners no sweat. They were cool, classy and on the button. As recent provincial champions winning all seven of their games from a competitive field of 32 they'd soon be off to the Canadian Championships (then the MacDonald Lassies) and the pressure of it.

Not only would Skinner, Adine Boutilier, Shirley Pace and Barb MacLeod be representing the province on the ice they'd be doing it off the ice as well, because the nationals was held that year in Halifax.

"It was a great competing at the Nationals,” Skinner recalls. “Meeting teams from across Canada was a wonderful experience and we had a lot of support from the province."

Being the host province has its demands on the representing team.

"We were kept busygoing to functions and being interviewed,” Skinner says. “I think we ended up 4:7 in the end. At provincials, our team had time to rest and concentrate on our game."

Skinner credits some of their success to practicing with their curler husbands. Sydney curler Chuck Thompson gave them many useful pointers on the game. The team stayed together after 1977 eventually moving into seniors ladies competitions. They represented Nova Scotia at the National Seniors Ladies in 1990,1991 and 1993 and were inducted in the Cape Breton Sport Hall of Fame in 2004.

Skinner started curling in 1967 back when corn brooms were in style. Prior to that household brooms were standard equipment. By the 1970s corn brooms had leather inserts that gave a distinctive slapping sound synonymous with curling for years. Noisier synthetic brooms eventually came along, then some of the roar of the game was lost with the advent of push brooms.

"We did miss the sound of the broom hitting the ice but I am sure that the girls were happy to use the push broom," says Skinner.

In 1977 Mary Nadaff, skip of the only other Cape Breton Ladies team (see photo) to compete in a Canadian Women's Championship, recalled how they got there.

"The Sydney Mines club had burned and there was no other club on the Northside ... We went to Halifax and had a big bonspiel. We came away with the championship and a berth in the 1969 national final (Thunder Bay). The experience of representing your province in a national competition is something else again ... something I will always remember."

Nadaff was thrilled when told by an ecstatic Rachel Baker, president of the Sydney Curling Club, the Scotties were coming to Sydney in 2019.

Many other terrific female curlers, including Pat MacCoy and Louise Rogers, came out of the numerous rinks around the island. Woman were curling locally in the early days of the sport. It is only fitting 40 years after the Skinner rink competed nationally in Halifax, Sydney is chosen to host the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Skinner sees it "as a great opportunity to showcase Sydney and Centre 200 and should provide a major economic benefit to the city."

Centre 200 with its bright new lighting system has been no stranger to holding big sporting events, including the 2003 World Junior hockey tournament, World Under 17 Challenge, NHL pre-season game (Edmonton versus Boston), the Oilers and Eagles, pro basketball, big figure skating events and professional boxing (Willie DeWit vs Tony Morrison,1988) which returns Nov 25.

When tickets go on sale at the box office for the Scotties all I can say is hurry, hurry hard.

Paul MacDougall is an educator and writer. He lives in Sydney. His column appears monthly in the Cape Breton Post. Paul can be reached at paul_macdougall@cbu.ca